Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

Okay, first off, I loved Sniper Elite (the original). I was instantly hooked and enjoyed the slow meticulous planning of taking out a single enemy with a well-placed shot to jaw. Sniper Elite V2 takes the excellence of the original and expands on it. With some improvement and with some lack-of-improvement.

The pros:

--- The kill shots! Excellent x-ray kill-cam. Seeing your bullet slide through the air and strike the skeletal structure of a Nazi is beautiful (in a twisted sense). When your bullet strikes, it shatters bone and you see teeth and bone fragments spray from your victim. Even without the skeletal kill-cam, you still see the exit wound splay open with a spray of blood.

--- Setting up your shot! In this game, you have the ability (at certain times) to pick and choose how you want to take on a group of enemies. Up high? Down low in rubble? You pick. Also, you have trip wires, and dynamite to lay in any area you want. It's quite nice to watch a group of Nazi's run into your trip wire from a distance.

--- The atmosphere! Great sounds and about average visuals make for decent environment to kill Nazis. The way the settings allow for long-distance shots is great.

--- The A.I.! The AI in this game will fall into the pros and cons category. The positive about the AI is that when they see you, they will hunt you down. They will not sit back and wait for you to kill them. They constantly move forward - ducking behind cover - and shooting when not behind cover.

The cons:

--- The A.I. Like I said, A.I. will fall into the pro and cons. First off, the AI can see you too quickly at times. I may be 600' away, lying down in rubble with my head and rifle barely peering out from behind a shattered wall - and the AI will notice me. Although it will take some time to notice you, if you are out in the open they will see. Now, this is good- and bad. Challenging? Yes. Annoying? Yeah, at times it can be.

--- Weapons! This is my pet-peeve, but I want weapons to be realistic. If I take two sniper shots from an enemy sniper, I should be dead. It shouldn't take 3 - 4 to kill me. The game should be realistic in all areas. If a Nazi catches me by surprise and sprays MP40 bullets in me - I should die. I should not take another 2 - 3 sprays of fully automatic machine-gun fire to kill me.

---- Realism! This also has to do with weapons... If I shoot an enemy in the knee - he should not be able to continue to sprint to the nearest cover. They made the kill shots extremely realistic, why they couldn't make the other shots realistic - I don't know.

--- Settings! Why are some levels inside buildings with short corridors and small rooms. There shouldn't be Close Quarters Combat in this game. The game is Sniper Elite. Not CQB Elite. (Note: Only a few levels are like this - most are outside with areas that allow for long shots)

Overall. Great game. If you like taking your time and killing from a distance and you liked playing those rare Call of Duty / Medal of Honor sniper levels - then you will love this game. I would give it a score of (9.0) for its genre (sniping).

However, overall, based on its AI, visuals, controls, and realism - it would have to give it a (6.5). So I averaged it out, and I am giving it an (8.0), also because I'm slighly biased, and love the game.

If you like your MP5 and double-barrel shotgun, and run-and-gun tactics then stick with COD.